Passione by John Tuturro

Il Banco InterAmericano di Sviluppo ha organizzato nel suo atrio una proiezione del film Passione diretto dal regista-attore John Tuturro. Il film-documentario-musical e' stato prodotto in occasione del 150mo anniversario dell'unificazione della Repubblica italiana.

Oltre 400 persone hanno assistito alla proiezione e si trattava in massima parte di stranieri che hanno applaudito questo film che consideriamo una delle piu' belle 'cartoline' di questa fantastica citta', Napoli, conglomerato di contraddizioni e di energie positive e negative. Quella che segue e' la critica del New York Times.

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Using the many-faced city of Naples as a whole other character, John Tuturro shows his love of the many styles of music found there with sweeping vistas and color-drenched intimate close-ups of dancers and lovers and people on the street. Through an almost-aimless dance in the cobbled streets of`Napoli, we learn of (he many influences benefiting old Neapolitan music - African, Spanish, French, and even jazz). When acclaimed actor-director John TurtUrro was invited to make a film about Neapolitan music he was intrigued. as an Italian-American who grew up with many of the swooning ballads that had been popularized. When he revisited the place and met the artists living there carrying on the tradition, he was completely blown away. The city had so much to say, there was nothing to do but sit back and listen. Preconceived ideas evaporated and what was meant to be a straight-ahead documentary transformed into a wild fantasia, an adventure. In the film's 23 songs, you can hear the cultures of many invaders: the Greeks, Arabs, French, Spanish, Nomlans, and Americans. Each song, whether written in protest or superstition, out of love, jealousy, or poverty, is an emotional postcard about what has changed and what has not. In Naples, life, death, hunger, and brutality are ever present, but a solitary voice on the street can cause an entire intersection to break out into song; Passione is Turturro`s celebration of that. The music in "Passione" combines sensual suavity with raw emotion, mixes heartbreak with ecstasy, acknowledges the hard realities of poverty and injustice, and soars above them. (New York Times)